1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a traffic means controlling apparatus controlling traffic means like elevators, traffic means in road traffic or railways and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, in case of controlling such traffic means as elevators, traffic means in road traffic or rail ways, the group controlling system totally controlling elevator cars or vehicles is applied. For example, in the case where plural elevators are juxtaposed, traffic service in a building is improved by means of practicing the group control (especially called as "group supervisory control" in case of elevator systems), in which generated hall calls are watched on-line at first, and suitable elevators are selected under the consideration of service states in the building totally, and then the elevators are assigned to the generated hall calls.
In such group supervisory control, it is desirable to be able to accurately grasp traffic flows, which contain elements indicating the quantities, the time and the directions of passengers' movements and to be able to estimate in advance. The movements of passengers include, for example, which time intervals passengers arrive at each hall in and which floor the passengers who rode on move to.
However, observable data on elevator traffic are limited to data indicating traffic volumes (hereinafter referred to as "traffic volume data") and the like, for example the number of passengers getting on and off elevators in a prescribed time zone, owing to the limitation of the hardware of used computers mainly, and consequently, the traffic flows which can be estimated on the basis of these traffic volume data are also made to be limited.
Traffic means controlling methods controlling traffic means in accordance with the characteristics of traffic volumes extracted from observed traffic volume data were proposed as resolving means for such the problem (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Sho 59-22870) heretofore.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a conventional elevator group supervisory control system. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 designates a group supervisory controlling apparatus executing the group supervisory control, the apparatus comprising a traffic volume detecting means 1F detecting traffic volumes, a traffic volume estimating means 100A estimating traffic volumes in prescribed time zones by practicing statistical treatment on the traffic volume data detected by the traffic volume detecting means 1F for several days, a traffic volume characteristic extracting means 100B extracting traffic volume characteristics in accordance with the estimated results by the traffic volume estimating means 100A, a control parameter setting means 100D setting parameters for the group supervisory control in accordance with the traffic volume characteristics extracted by the traffic volume characteristic extracting means 100B, and a drive controlling means 1E executing the drive control of each cars of elevators on the basis of the parameters set by the control parameter setting means 100D. Reference numerals 2-1 through 2-N designate car controlling apparatus respectively installed in each car (the 1st car to the Nth car) transporting passengers; numeral 3 designates hall call input and output controlling apparatus installed in each elevator hall and executing the inputting and outputting of hall calls; and numeral 4 designates a user interface for executing the setting or the changing of the control parameters from the outside.
Next, the operation will be described thereof.
At first, the traffic volume detecting means 1F detects calls at halls, passengers' getting on or off the elevators, or the like by monitoring them through each hall call input and output controlling apparatus 3 and car controlling apparatus 2-1-2-N while elevators are being driven, and the detecting means 1F inputs the detected traffic volume data into the traffic volume estimating means 100A. The traffic volume estimating means 100A estimates the traffic volumes at the prescribed time zones on the day when the control is practiced by statistically treating the traffic volume data detected by the traffic volume detecting means 1F, and the traffic volume estimating means 100A inputs the estimated traffic volumes into the traffic volume characteristic extracting means 100B. The traffic volume characteristic extracting means 100B extracts the characteristics of the traffic volumes from the estimated results of the traffic volume estimating means 100A by obtaining the degrees of the congestion of specific floors and the like, and the traffic volume characteristic extracting means 100B inputs the extracted characteristics into the control parameter setting means 100D. The control parameter setting means 100D sets the group supervisory control parameters in accordance with the characteristics extracted by the traffic volume characteristic extracting means 100B, and the control parameter setting means 100D inputs the set group supervisory control parameters into the drive controlling means 1E. The drive controlling means 1E controls the car controlling apparatus 2-1-2-N on the basis of the group supervisory control parameters set by the control parameter setting means 100D for executing the drive control of each car of the elevators. When a manager of the elevators changes controlling conditions and the like, he or she sets or changes the control parameters with the user interface 4.
The conventional traffic means controlling apparatus is constructed as described above, and it extracts the characteristics of the traffic volumes by obtaining the degrees of the congestion of specific floors and the like, and it sets the control parameters in accordance with the extracted traffic volume characteristics, and further it executes the group supervisory control on the basis of with the control parameters. Consequently, for example, even if the characteristics of the traffic volumes such as the degree of the congestion of a specific floor and the like are known, it is required to execute different controls between the state where passengers having gotten on the elevator at a certain floor dispersedly move to other floors equally and the state where the passengers concentratedly move to a specific floor, but it is difficult for the conventional traffic means controlling apparatus to distinguish these states and to control the elevators efficiently.
Besides, signal control at the intersections of roads or train group control in railways is conventionally controlled on the basis of the traffic volumes or their characteristics, which are only quantitative information heretofore, then it is difficult to control the signals or the train groups efficiently similarly.
Furthermore, control parameters can be set or changed by a manager (user) with the user interface 4 of the conventional traffic means controlling apparatus, but the manager can not refer the results of controlling or the results of driving after controlling the drive of the conventional apparatus, and consequently, the manager can not grasp how to change the control parameters for executing the efficient control, then the conventional traffic means controlling apparatus has a problem that it cannot lead out appropriate control parameters efficiently.
Furthermore, the estimation of traffic volumes is conventionally obtained by statistically treating past traffic volumes, for example by calculating the weighted averages of the traffic volumes at the same time zones for past several days. However, for example, there can be some differences in the beginning and ending times of rush hours or passenger numbers on days even in the same building, and consequently, errors happen in the estimated traffic volumes, then errors also happen in the traffic flows presumed from the past traffic volumes in the conventional traffic means controlling apparatus.